The present invention relates generally to a generic handheld remote control device for controlling the operation of an appliance such as, e.g., a VCR, a TV, a microwave oven, a washing machine or the like. The present invention also relates to a system incorporating such a remote control device, and to a process for carrying out the control operation between a remote control device and an appliance to be controlled.
Various remote control devices are known for controlling, e.g., a VCR. Such a remote control device comprises many buttons, each assigned to a specific task. For instance, an xe2x80x9con/offxe2x80x9d button may be provided on the remote control device for switching on or off the VCR, a xe2x80x9crecordxe2x80x9d button for starting recording etc. Generally, a user presses the specific button in order to obtain a desired result, i.e. by pressing a specific button on the remote control, the VCR will carry out a desired operation.
Furthermore, so-called universal remote controllers are known which may be programmed by several standard remote control devices provided with each appliance. Then, each button on the universal remote control is assigned several functions depending on the selected mode of operation. Thus, such a universal remote control may operate not only the VCR, but also a TV, a compact disk player or the like.
However, the number of buttons available on the remote controller always limits the operations that may be executed. If a large number of buttons are provided, the remote controller becomes bulky, expensive and so complicated that most users will not even use it, and there still is a limitation in operation or function that may be controlled due to the limited set of buttons.
Furthermore, the so-called universal remote controller is limited to a specific number of appliances that may be controlled, because a specific memory and associated control logic must be provided for each appliance that may be operated. Generally, such universal remote controllers may operate about four distinct appliances. Thus, if a new appliance is to be controlled, either a former appliance must be deleted from the memory of the universal remote controller, or the separate remote control device provided with the new appliance, if any, should be used.
Moreover, if the new appliance has new functions, it is not always easy to assign a specific button on the universal remote controller in an understandable manner to this new function. For example, a compact disk player may have a function called xe2x80x9crandom playxe2x80x9d, whereas the universal remote controller only has a button called xe2x80x9cplayxe2x80x9d.
Clearly, such remote control devices are not ergonomic due to the fact that they are complicated in use.
Other prior art remote control devices are known. For instance, a VCR with its remote control device is commercialized by the company Panasonic(copyright) in which the remote control device is provided with a LCD-display and with a bar-code reader to enter programming details into the VCR. By scanning an appropriate bar code, the remote control device decodes the inputted information and displays the programmed operation.
FIGS. 1a and 1b are schematic representations of the operation of such a conventional remote control device. In FIG. 1a, the user holds the remote control device 1 above a paper 2 containing bar codes 3 and scans the appropriate codes using the provided scanner 4. This scanned information is decoded in the remote control device 1 which then generates VCR commands and displays the program on the LCD screen 5 so that the user may check the operation. In FIG. 1b, the user then presses a xe2x80x9csendxe2x80x9d button on the remote control device 1 to send the programmed operation to a VCR 6. Thus, all the logic is hard-coded in the remote control device which is thus expensive to manufacture, and very task-specific. Indeed, if new functions are available for the VCR, a new remote control device must be provided as the hard-coded logic must be re-programmed.
It may thus be understood that the known devices suffer from a lack of generality of application, with a new design being necessary for every new group of tasks to be treated.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a true generic remote control device which is easy to use and which does not have to be changed or altered or re-engineered in order to change the service or operation that the device invokes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a device, which is simple, easy to manufacture, small in size and low in cost.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system incorporating such a remote control device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for carrying out the control operation between a remote control device and an appliance to be controlled.
Therefore, the present invention concerns a generic remote control device as defined in present claim 1.
The present invention also concerns a system according to claim 6, and a process according to claim 9.
Thus, the inventive device collects parameters from the physical world, encodes these parameters for transmission to a remote server, captures and encodes the function name of the procedure to be called on the remote server, encodes the destination that is to receive the results produced by the remote server, sets up a transmission between the remote control device and the remote server, and transmits the packaged, encoded data to the remote server that will then execute the remote procedure call, thereby resulting in the desired operation of the appliance.
Thanks to the present invention, it is possible to break through the rigidity of the prior art through its explicit recognition that the task to be performed can be symbolically encoded and transmitted along with the data on which the task is to be performed, using the same philosophy contained in the digital computer world concept of a remote procedure call.
Thus, the present inventive device embodies a remote procedure call in a physical device. Consequently, the present invention offers a wide variety of possible implementations by describing what elements must be present in a physical embodiment of a remote procedure call and by describing how these elements can be technologically realized.